Nonaddictive Opioid Shows No Side Effects

An early clinical trial of a new opioid involving patients with the intractable pain of pancreatitis has shown that the drug is nonaddictive and relieves pain by acting only on peripheral nerves, thereby causing few or no side effects.

Morphine and other opioids work by affecting receptors in the brain, where the pain is experienced. However, patients taking morphine are likely to become addicted to the pleasures of stimulation of the opioid receptors located in other parts of the brain. In addition, opioid receptors in other parts of the body are stimulated by the morphine, creating serious side effects such as respiratory depression, sedation, and gastrointestinal problems.

In contrast, the new opioid stimulates a different set of opioid receptors, called kappa receptors, found at the site of the injury. Called a kappa opioid receptor stimulator (ADL 10-0101), the drug treated pain before it reached the brain and thus caused no side effects. The developer, Adolor Corp. (Exton, PA, USA; www.adolor.com), states that the drug has no addiction potential and represents a safe way to treat pain so severe that no current medications can alleviate it.




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